You Gave Me Hope
by harrysmagic2489
Summary: After the death of Dumbledore, Harry takes on his role in retrieving and destroying the horcrux's, with the belief that he has no future, he keeps those away so that they wont hurt when he dies. He did not count on hermione changing all his plans.
1. Chapter 1

**You Gave Me Hope****...**

Chapter 1

Number 4 privet drive, little whinging, surrey, was an ordinary house, on an ordinary street. Within the house lived an ordinary family of 3 who went about their business like all others, the dursleys however had another occupant living within their house, Harry Potter.

Harry Potter was a now 16 year old boy who, unbeknownst to others, was also a wizard, yes, wizard as in magic. At the age of only one harry had been marked and forever known as The-boy-who-lived, by another wizard, a dark wizard, by the name of Voldemort. With Voldemort's attack, harry had lost both his parents and was now under the care, if you could call being raised as a slave as care, of his mother's sister and her husband. From as far as harry could remember he was treated as a house worker, cooking breakfast, cleaning up after his relatives and being an overall slave.

On Harry's eleventh birthday, harry received a letter from Hogwarts school of witch craft and wizardry. July 31st 2001, was the day that harry would remember forever, as that was the day he was able to leave the dursleys.

Hogwarts was a school like any other, besides the fact that the students learned magic instead of Chemistry and English. In Harry's first year he had met Ron Weasley and Hermione granger, who had become his best friends. They took down a troll and rescued the philosopher's stone from Voldemort's grasp together and from first year have been inseparable.

During the second year of harry, Ron and Hermione's education, they had managed to take down a basilisk along with saving Ginny, Ron's younger sister, from death.

Third year brought the trio to a new challenge, not anything to do with magical creatures but the challenge of rescuing Harry's new found godfather Sirius black who was never given a trial and sent to Azkaban prison for a crime in which he did not commit, yet with the help of Remus Lupin he was found innocent when Peter Pettigrew was sent to the ministry and confessed to the crimes.

Fourth year saw harry competing in the triwizard tournament as a champion of Hogwarts along with Cedric Diggory , fleur Delacour champion of Beauxbatons and Viktor Krum champion of Durmstrang. He witnessed the death of Cedric and the return of Voldemort, where they had taken his blood and Bellatrix LeStrange had cut off her hand to perform the dark ritual in which Voldemort received a body of his own.

Fifth year was the worst for harry as that was the year he had lost his godfather to the killing curse in the department of mysteries in the ministry of magic. Without Sirius Harry had become a legal adult in the wizarding world. With the loss of his godfather, Harry also became aware of a prophecy connecting him to Voldemort, even though he had heard the whole prophecy and had repeated it over and over in his head, the only thing he was able to understand was '..._neither shall live while the other survives.'_

Sixth year was just as bad as it left Harry without the instructions of his mentor Dumbledore, as he too was killed this time by Severus Snape, the potions master of Hogwarts. Sixth year also left Harry with the knowledge of Voldemort's horcrux's, which 2 of them had already been destroyed, the diary from second year and the ring that Dumbledore had manged to retrieve and destroy before his untimely death.

Harry was now sitting on his bed in number 4 privet drive, which he had fixed with magic and was staring out into the open with a blank look upon his face. It had been 3 weeks since the funeral of Dumbledore in which not only did he say his final goodbye to the old wizard but was broken up with from his now ex-girlfriend and first love Ginny Weasley. With everything that Harry had been through he knew that there was still more to come, he needed to hunt down the horcrux's that Voldemort had created along with making sure that those around him would be safe when the time came and he were to face Voldemort. His future held no hope as he knew that he would possibly be the one to die so deciding to make sure that he was alone in the end as to not hurt anyone if he left, harry would keep people at arm's length. According to harry potter, life could not get any worse.

In Harry's current state of nonexistence within his mind, it took him a while before he noticed the pecking sound from the window in which he spotted his owl Hedwig hammering the glass with her beak, looking down at her leg and then at Harry, he noticed the letter tied and quickly ran to the window to let her in.

As Harry untied the letter from her leg he looked at his owl while giving her a treat and stroking her head with the back of his fingers.

''Sorry girl, I've got a lot on my mind and I didn't hear you'' he said to her. Hedwig hooted and nipped his finger understanding what he said and waited while Harry opened the letter.

_Dear Harry_

_I know it's been a while since I've written but I'm sure you will understand that I have had a hard time accepting that Dumbledore is gone and have been in an isolated mood for the past few weeks. _

_I want you to read this carefully Harry James Potter; it is NOT your fault. What happened on the tower had nothing to do with you, you obeyed Dumbledore's orders and he made sure that you were not discovered when you returned, he knew what he was doing._

_Onto slightly better news, I have been given permission to come and stay with you for the remainder of the summer until your 17__th__ birthday in which we will be going someplace else as the blood wards will drop and become useless. If you wish for me to come please send a reply with Hedwig, I asked her to make sure you reply with an answer so don't even think about not doing so, she has my permission to attack if need be._

_You can just send back a yes or no and I will then either use Hedwig for a reply or just send her back after she rests._

_Love_

_Hermione G. _

Harry closed the letter and looked up to be met with the wide yellow eyes of Hedwig as she stared him down. Harry knew that if he did not reply then Hedwig would start biting. He quickly grabbed a regular piece of paper instead of parchment and a pen instead of a quill and wrote down his reply.

_Dear Hermione_

_I would love it if you stayed with me until my birthday, but I am not myself right now, I don't know how to explain it but since the events of three weeks ago, I don't feel like doing much, I cannot concentrate on anything and spend most of the day sitting on the edge of my bed thinking, I would not like for you to waste your summer so if you feel like not coming I understand._

_Love _

_Harry J.P_

Harry tied the letter to Hedwig's outstretched leg and watched her fly towards Hermione's house. Returning to his spot on the edge of his bed Harry took out his wand and transformed his room so that it now resembled that of a fancy motel room. The room now had 2 double beds with a divider in between, a small kitchen that consisted of a fridge, small sink, microwave and a few cupboards. To the end of the room was a desk along with a door to the bathroom and to add to the furniture there stood two closets for their clothing.

Harry would not mind if Hermione decided to change her mind but if she did decide to still come at least he would be prepared, if not, he could easily change it back. He returned from looking around the newly formed room and lay down on his bed, looking at the ceiling he let out a deep breath and closed his eyes, getting lost once again within his mind and thoughts.

Harry had drifted in to the land of sleep and was awoken by the pecks on his forehead from Hedwig, who had returned from Hermione which meant that she had a reply. Harry fixed his glasses so that he was able to see and sat up, filling Hedwig's water and food in her cage he then proceeded to take the letter from her leg. Taking the letter harry walked towards the desk and turned on the light, looking at the clock he saw that it was now 22:45, he sat down and placed the letter in front of him staring as if waiting for it to do something.

In a way, harry wanted Hermione to stay with him as he felt that they would both be able to start the healing process with the help of each other, yet a more stronger argument within his head was telling him that he must not let her get close to him, as her life would be in danger. He slowly opened the letter and began to read the letter,

_Dear harry,_

_Any time that I get to spend with you is not a waste, and no matter what, I will always be by your side, you should know that by now after all we have been through. _

_It may seem weird but I believe that we will be able to help each other during my stay, we don't have to talk all the time or constantly do stuff as I consider that being in each other's presence will allow us to begin the healing process of loosing Dumbledore and we may even be able to finally let go of everything._

_See you tomorrow at 4pm, I'll apparate to your back yard as I know how your relatives hate having our kind arriving at the front door, you have told them I'm staying right? If not then you better do it because I swear harry, I will not be an uninvited guest in your relatives house, I may not like them but I will respect the unwritten code of etiquette._

_Love,_

_Hermione G._

With the end of the letter, harry made himself a mental note to inform his relatives of the expectant visitor and with that he switched of the light gave Hedwig a final stroke on the head, took of his glasses and collapsed into bed with the final thought of how he was going to spring the news of hermiones arrival to his aunt and uncle the next morning.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I do not own anything related to harry potter, I do not make any money from these stories. Anything recognised belongs to the wonderful JK Rowling; I just enjoy playing in her world.

Chapter 2

When harry woke up for the third time due to nightmares he gazed at the clock to find that it was 5am. He got out of bed, grabbed a towel and made his way to the bathroom for his morning shower.

After he had finished in the bathroom, harry decided to change into a pair of shorts with a plain white polo and trainers, he had got his haircut short, it was still as messy as ever yet with the help of some gel, harry was able to at least calm it down a bit into a stylish mess.

At 6:30am, harry made his way down to the kitchen to start breakfast for his relatives, without magic it would take harry 45 minutes to cook the food that they consumed, and due to their aversion towards magic, harry was forced to cook the food without help.

At 7am, harry could hear his relatives and knew they would be down in a few minutes. He took this time to put out the place settings and collect the plates so that he could dish up when they came downstairs. Harry had decided the night before that he would tell his relatives of Hermione's visit after breakfast, as that is when his uncle was happiest out of the whole day.

His relatives started making their way downstairs and harry dished their plates according to the orders barked at him from his uncle and cousin. Taking the two overly loaded plates to the table he placed them in front of their recipients and made his way upstairs to prepare his own breakfast. In his bedroom, harry figured that he would just conjure a plate of eggs and bacon with some toast as he knew that he needed to make it down right before Vernon had shovelled everything down. After eating his breakfast, harry placed his dishes into the small sink and made his way downstairs to face the music.

Vernon Dursley had just finished his breakfast and was on his way to work when harry had asked if he could have a word.

Harry was looking at his uncle, and decided that it was now or never,

''I have a friend from school coming to stay with me until my birthday when I will officially leave your house for good, we will not bother you and you will not bother us, I will still do all of my chores and you do not have to worry about feeding her because we will look after ourselves'' harry spoke with an emotion of threat in his voice, ''the only reason that I am telling you this is because she said that she would not visit if I did not inform you of her arrival, so now that I have informed you she will arrive at 4 tonight''

And with that, harry returned upstairs to his bedroom where he retrieved a pen and some paper and quickly wrote a note to Hermione,

_Dear Hermione,_

_I have informed my relatives of your arrival and they are fine with it, I'll be waiting outside at 4 when you arrive and we can then plan from there. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon._

_Harry J.P._

Fastening the letter to Hedwig's leg, he asked to deliver the letter to Hermione and after watching Hedwig fly until he could not see her anymore, returned to his sitting position on the edge of the bed and waited, in his head he told himself,

'7 hours, just have to wait now for 7 hours'

And with that thought, harry remained seated on the edge of the bed with a blank look masking his face as he returned to his mind and his thoughts.

At 3:50 harry made his way to the back yard, after spraying on some deodorant, and sat down on one of the lawn chairs, he resumed his day of waiting.

10 minutes later, right at 4 pm, Hermione appeared on the back yard lawn with a 'pop'. Harry heard this and stood up as Hermione came rushing towards him and wrapped him in one of her bone crushing hugs. The teenagers stood like that for while before Hermione finally released her grip and took a step back, still maintaining eye contact with harry.

After a minute of silence and staring, Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and went inside,

'Come on harry, let's go to your room so I can get unpacked.' She whispered while they entered the house.

Harry then lead her up the stairs and into his room, when he entered he turned around to find Hermione still at the doorway string into the enlarged room.

'Harry, what happened in here, how did you do this, wont you get into trouble' she fired off her questions at harry at rapid speed, harry however having been so close to her for the past six years, understood exactly what she said and replied,

'first, I changed the room so that it was more comfortable and practical for living in as my relatives basically do not want to see us at all while we are here, secondly, magic, and third but not least, no, I won't get into trouble as I am seen as an adult in the wizarding world now and have been since...since...since ...the end of fifth year' harry finished his answer in a silent whisper yet loud enough for Hermione to hear.

Harry sat on his bed showing Hermione, by pointing, what bed was hers, what cupboard she could use and that the desk was hers for homework.

'Why don't you have a desk for homework harry' she said as she folded her arms over her chest.

'Hermione, don't worry I finished all my work the first three days of summer' he said as he lay down to look at the ceiling.

'Harry that's impossible, not even I could do all the work in three days'

'It is possible if you don't eat or sleep, it's amazing how much time you have without them'

Hermione stared at harry, concern etched upon her face at the pain her best friend has had in his life,

'Harry, I know in your letters you said that you weren't yourself but I'm here now and if you want to talk, I'll listen.' After Hermione said this she made her way to the cupboard and unpacked, she was older than harry by a few months and was already seventeen. She took out her wand and with a flick all of her clothes had now begun to arrange themselves in the available places. When that was done she turned around and made her way to Harry's bed. She knelt down and placed a hand on his arm,

'Listen, I've been by your side for 6 years now, you've saved my life on many occasions, I just want you to know that no matter what happens I will always be there with you. I understand if you don't want to talk, but I'm here now and if you need to talk just say so and I'll listen.' With that said she got up and made her way to the kitchen.

Harry listened to Hermione and knew that she would listen to him when he needed to talk, but his head was telling him to keep her at a distance, she said that he had saved her life, but it was his fault that she was even in danger in the first place, maybe not with the basilisk but everything else was definitely his fault.

'Hermione, I know you, I know that you will be by my side no matter what, but you can't, you cannot be near me, it's too dangerous'

Hermione tried to speak but harry just held up his hand and Hermione knew that he didn't want her to defend herself at the moment so she let him continue hoping that getting this off his chest would start the healing process.

'You said that I have saved your life but you forget that it was me, who put you in those situations in the first place. I want to talk to you but I don't think that you would understand and with Dumbledore and Sirius gone, I don't have anyone to talk to anymore.'

With that said, Hermione lost it,

'No one to talk to..., no one to talk to, I understand exactly how that feels harry. I have no one to talk to; at least I offered to listen to you. My parents have no idea about anything magical, not to mention that they have no clue about our little adventures because they told me that I would not return to Hogwarts if it was dangerous. I can't confide in them, I can't release the anger and stress out, so I do know harry, I do. And you think that I wouldn't understand, I've been with you for 6 years harry, yes, you have been through more than me but 80 percent of the time I was right by your side, and don't think that the death of Sirius and Dumbledore didn't affect me because they did, and you want to know why, because of how it affects you, to see you like this causes me pain harry, it makes me hurt to watch you beat yourself up over things that were inevitable, over things that weren't even your fault.'

When Hermione had finished she simply put up the divider and lay down on her bed, tears slowly forming in her eyes and falling down the side of her face, she curled up into a ball on her bad cast a silencing spell and cried for hours until sleep took over.

While Hermione cried harry too fell into a fit of silent sobs, it hurt him to know that Hermione would do anything for him yet he needed to stay away from him and not get close, to see that she cared so much for him that his pain hurt her, to understand that she went through the same thing he did, how she had no one to talk to yet was willing to listen to his problems. At that moment, harry decided that Hermione needed him as much as he needed her. Screw keeping her away, she was going to be there for him and he would do the same for her.

With that final thought, harry fell asleep and for the first time in a while, had a full nights rest with no interruptions from nightmares or pain.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I do not own harry potter, never have and never will. I make no money from this; I just enjoy playing around in the magical world that JK Rowling created for us.

Chapter 3

For the next few days, life in harry and Hermione's room was quiet, they had developed a routine that managed to fit them so that both were able to take a shower and get ready in the morning, eat breakfast that was conjured most of the time, the other times they prepared the food themselves using conjured ingredients, the same went for lunch and dinner. Hermione had completed all her summer work and harry had reviewed and added some extras to his.

After a week, Hermione decided it was time for harry to talk, she was tired of watching him sit and turn into a zombie whenever he was thinking about the past, she still had under a month before they would be leaving and she did not want to spend it watching him slowly cave in on himself.

'Harry, we need to talk' said Hermione, harry sat up on his bed and looked at her. He could see her expression meant that there was no way he was getting out of this yet he could also see that she needed to get things off her chest as well.

'I guess, but I don't want you to worry anymore than you are, when you hear what I have to say, I'm afraid that you are going to leave, even though it would be better for you to stay away from me, I understand that I need you near and that you help me, you need to promise that you won't leave me Hermione' his eyes had a depth of pleading towards Hermione.

During Harry's reply, Hermione had made her way to his bed and sat down next to him, nodding when he asked for her promise. Both were sitting at the edge of the best right next to one another with their hands in their laps. While Hermione's eyes were focused on harry, his eyes were focused on the floor by his feet.

Hermione placed a hand on Harry's lap, as he turned his head he met her gaze and could see that she was ready to listen

When harry began his story his eyes returned to the floor and Hermione's grasp reassured him that it was alright.

'The night that Dumbledore died, we were returning from collecting something. Something infused with dark magic. It was a horcrux, Voldemort's to be exact, or that's what we thought, but when we finally retrieved it, it was nothing but a fake, a copy of the original with a note inside signed by someone with the initials R.A.B. the reason that Dumbledore and I were looking for the horcrux, is because of the prophecy we tried to get. I haven't told anyone what it says, its etched on my brain, the prophecy said a whole lot of stuff about me and Voldemort yet the one thing that I will never forget is the last line of the prophecy,

_Neither can live while the other survives,_

It's between me and him Hermione, either I kill him or he kills me, there's no other who can do it. The only way I can eventually kill him is by getting rid of his horcrux's, if I don't, he would just come back.'

Hermione listened carefully keeping her grip on him as it seemed to be keeping him at ease with telling her all of this. When he mentioned the last line of the prophecy, tears began forming in her eyes and slowly making their way down her cheeks. When harry finished he looked towards her and brought up his hand to wipe away the tears with his thumb. He then brought her closer to himself and enveloped her into a hug where she began to cry. At the feel of her sadness, harry finally after, keeping it in all this time, let all his emotions go and cried alongside Hermione, it wasn't the same shed of tears as a week ago, this was a breakout of anger, sadness, betrayal, loss and every other emotion that they could think of.

After an hour of holding each other and letting everything go, the two finally let go of each yet neither could pry their eyes from each other. Hermione and harry wiped their faces, clearing the tears from their puffed up and red eyes.

'thank you Hermione, you have no idea how much that helped, I still have things to talk about but I'm all cried out and I think that we have made some progress, and just so you know, if you ever want to talk I'm here as well' said harry, still keeping his eyes locked on Hermione.

Hermione formed a small smile and nodded at harry,

'Thanks harry, I think I'll leave my problems for tomorrow, I don't know if I'll be able to cry anymore today. Seems as though we skipped lunch, you want to start on dinner?'

With a nod from harry Hermione made a move towards the bathroom,

'I'm just going to clean up and wash my face', harry gave a small smile, the first of the summer.

'I'll go in after you, I need to splash some water on my face and wash up too' said harry as Hermione walked into the bathroom.

Harry made his way into the kitchen and leaned against the counter top. He decided that he was not going to sit on the edge of his bed anymore, that was the past, he wasn't healed but he knew that making little changes like this could maybe speed things along. Hermione came out the bathroom and harry made his way inside.

For the rest of the evening, Harry and Hermione had prepared dinner, a simple meal of chicken with a salad. After finishing their dinner, they cleared up the dished and washed them, placing them back into the cupboard.

Hermione decided to then take a shower and change. When she had exited the bathroom, harry entered and showered, enjoying the hot water hitting his skin, it seemed to relax his and wash away some of his troubles. He dressed in a pair of long pyjama pants and a plain white shirt.

The two bid each other good-night and went to bed.

The next morning, harry awoke to the sound and smell of bacon frying. He forced his body out of his comfortable position in his bed to sit up. Looking into the kitchen he saw that Hermione was leaning against the counter top with a cup of coffee in her hand while she read the paper in her other. Hermione had a subscription to the daily prophet and received the paper every morning.

Noticing that harry was now awake, Hermione placed her coffee on the counter and retrieved another mug from the cupboard to pour carry a cup. Harry made his way to the kitchen and thanked Hermione for the coffee.

'I had a dream last night' said harry before taking a sip. Hermione made her way to harry and held onto his forearm.

'Was it Sirius again, or your parents, or Dumbledore' harry could hear the concern in her voice as she asked the questions, the only thing he could do was smile.

'Harry, why are you smiling, I don't want to see you hurt like this, I'm glad you told me but we need to actually talk about it.' Said Hermione as she took a step back.

'Hermione, you misunderstood. I said I had a dream last night, not nightmare, a dream. I, I had a dream Hermione, it was amazing. I was flying on my broom and kept going forward towards something; it was a figure in the distance. I kept getting closer and when I could finally get a good look I saw it was a lady holding a baby. Before I could get any closer, it was like I was sucked into another world and a new scene played out, I kept doing that until I woke up. The best part about it though is that all the images I saw was about a family, a mother, father and child. I think it was my parents and me because the father figure in my dream looked like me.'

Hermione had tears forming in her eyes as she saw the joy in harry as he told her about his dream. She saw how happy he was, and that made her happy as well.

Harry lifted his hands and wiped away her tears with his thumb.

'Hey now, I thought that we only cried after breakfast' he said with a small chuckle.

'Alright, we'll finish eating, shower and clean up, and then we can talk.' Harry nodded at Hermione and began eating his bacon, eggs and toast. Throughout breakfast smiles were plastered on moth harry and Hermione's faces.

While Hermione showered and got ready for the day, harry had offered to clear up and wash the dishes. When Hermione was done, harry grabbed his towel and made his way to the bathroom.

When harry was done he exited the bathroom and made his way to his bed where he waved his wand and the bed was made. He then conjured two comfortable chairs for them to sit in while they talked, Hermione gave him a questioning look and he explained to her how he felt about the bed.

Harry and Hermione sat down on the chairs that were facing each other.

'Yesterday you said that you would talk, but I don't want you to feel that you have to because I did. We shouldn't rush into this as it could become a bit...intense...and I don't think that it would be wise to fall into that' said harry as he held Hermione's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

'It's ok harry, I want to do this. I guess I'll start at the beginning; it will make it easier for you to understand instead of jumping back and forth making references to previous years. When I was younger, I was always the bookworm, the know-it-all. Nobody wanted to be my friend, and I was always alone. My parents did their best to help me not feel left out, but they didn't fill the gap that a friend would. People always thought of me as weird, and I began believing it, especially after a few bouts of accidental magic would happen. I saw myself as a freak that nobody would ever like, that I would be the old women with the cats that everyone avoided. When I got my letter to Hogwarts, I thought to myself that I had finally found somewhere I could be accepted, but I was wrong. Even at Hogwarts, I still got called bookworm and know-it-all. I began to go back into a downward spiral until you saved me from the troll.' Hermione spoke in the same manner as harry did the day before, with a small voice and her eyes locked on the ground.

During Hermione's talk, harry realised that she was no different than him. Growing up without any friends and always thinking of himself as a freak were the two things that he hated most about his childhood. Tears began forming at his eyes as Hermione began shaking with tears rolling down her cheeks. Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him, when she sat down on his lap, he wrapped his arms around her again and they cried once more, releasing the emotions that they had held in for so long.

A/N: please don't be mad, but the next few chapters will be the same, this is a very important part to the development of harry and Hermione's relationship and something else, but that will have to wait until later in the story. Please review, it keeps me going.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I do not own harry potter, never have and never will. I make no money from this; I just enjoy playing around in the magical world that JK Rowling created for us.

Chapter 4

After Hermione had calmed down harry turned her face so that she was looking at him.

'Thank you' he whispered.

'For what, Harry'

Harry wrapped his arms and held her tight. Closing his eyes, harry then sighed and turned to look at her once more,

'Growing up, I thought of myself as a freak too. My relatives always called me that and I grew up believing that my name was freak. I was only told my name on the first day of primary school before I left. I said thank you because I now know that I'm not the only one who went through that. I didn't wish that anyone shared my life at that point; I wished I had someone who would understand, and now I do.'

Hermione began to let the tears fall, she wasn't all out crying, but releasing the ones that build up in her eyes. Harry once again wiped them away.

'Do you want to continue' said Harry as he then wiped his own eyes.

'I think so, yes, I should try and get as much out as possible' Hermione then made her way back to her seat. Harry couldn't help but feel that he did not want Hermione to leave. That having her close to him helped him.

'have you ever wondered why I've always been by your side harry' after receiving a 'no' from him she continued, 'you were my first friend, and because I've never had any friends before I wasn't sure how to act, but I always believed that friends should stick by one another no matter what. So from that moment in time I vowed to never let you be alone, no matter what you go through in life. And after a while it became second nature, I didn't have to think about it, I was just always there.'

Harry was listening closely to what she said and that made Hermione feel better. She knew that she would always listen to him but never minded if he didn't listen as carefully as she did.

'Over the next few years, all our adventures and mishaps became my best memories. Even though most are horrible, I don't focus on that, but more on the time that we spent together as friends. My parents were so excited when I got home after first year and hung up photos of everyone that I had met, most were of you and Ron.'

Harry saw the tears starting to form and knew that this was going to be the part that she needed to get off her chest.

'Before I left for Hogwarts, my dad told me that if anything dangerous happened while I was there, I was to return home immediately. That was the first time I lied to my parents, I did not want them to take me away from my new and only friends. They have no idea about the philosopher's stone, the chamber of secrets, the triwizard tournament or the ministry. They know nothing about Sirius, the dementors or even Lupin's condition. I was too afraid to confide in my parents because I did not want them to take me away. They believed the lies I told them about school because I had never lied to them before. When I saw Voldemort in the ministry, I knew that this was going to get bad. I knew that it would never be safe again until he was gone'

At this moment, Hermione had stopped talking and started to sob. Harry quickly got out of his chair and made his way towards the shaking figure of Hermione. He placed on hand on her thigh and the other on her back, rubbing up and down to try and calm her down. He did not say anything he just let her go. Once Hermione had gained enough control to talk she looked up at harry and gave a small smile.

'Thanks, I should get this out. Remember when I said that I had permission to come stay with you, that's not entirely true. After Dumbledore's death, I began putting my plan into action. The reason I came to stay is because I have no place to stay. When summer began, I modified their memories. They now believe that their names are Dave and Miranda Gellow, and that their lifelong dream was to tour the world, so they sold the house and their dental practice and went to Africa to begin living their dream. After they left I came here, I packed all my stuff and placed a muggle repelling charm on my bedroom door so that I had a place to live before I left, they have no memory of ever having a daughter. When I left and removed the charm they saw the room as any regular spare bedroom in the house, I changed it to leave no resemblance of me.'

When Hermione finished, harry realised that she was basically an orphan now until Voldemort was dead. He slowly let the tears fall down his face as the anger build up within him. He started breathing deeply, trying to calm himself down. Hermione saw his knuckles turn white and knew he was struggling. Before she could move harry exploded.

'AAAAGGGGGHHHHH, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him. He's ruined everyone's life or eventually will. Because of him I have no parents, no godfather, no mentor and no childhood...because of him you have to give up your life with parents, you have to live in fear because you're muggle born.' He continued to pace the room and breathe hard. 'That man or thing rather, has taken everything from me, it his fault, ITS HIS FAULT!'

Harry punched the wall with his last outburst and broke his hand, but he didn't care. He stood still facing the wall with blood trickling from his knuckles to the ground. His body relaxed and the anger had left him. Hermione came up behind him when she turned him around, she saw that he was smiling; his face held a sense of relief and eyes, even though they were puffy and red from crying, no longer held the darkness of shame. For once in her life, Hermione was lost in complete confusion.

Harry took both his hands and held Hermione's face when he saw her expression.

'It's not my fault' he said as he stared into her eyes. Hermione then realised what he had just said. She leapt into him wrapping her arms around his neck as he held her waist. Harry let a small laugh escape his lips and repeated softly,

'It's not my fault, it's not my fault'

Harry then picked her up and turned then in a circle. When he put her back on the ground he went back to holding her face in his hands. They were both crying, yet for the first time since both could remember, they were tears of joy. Harry pulled Hermione into his chest and wrapped one arm around her while the other went to her hair. The crying was not heard but felt as both bodies began shaking, eventually turning into a small chuckle from both of them. In between tears and laughter, Harry could not help but happily say to Hermione and himself,

'It's not my fault, after years of thinking so, I now realise, and it's not my fault'

Harry could feel the weight on his shoulders leave; he felt the darkness, caused by him always thinking it was his fault, evaporate like steam leaving a boiling kettle. For the first time in his life, harry did not have the feeling of uselessness that he had always carried around.

When the two had finally released one another, Hermione decided that it was time for a late lunch. Harry and Hermione both went to the bathroom to clean up before meeting in the kitchen. Instead of conjuring the food, harry decided to take Hermione to the grocery store to get ingredient. They both saw this as an opportunity to get out of the house and get some fresh air.

Harry could apparate but did not have his licence. Hermione could apparate and did have her licence; she however did not know how to get to the store. They decided that they would side along and Hermione could show her licence in the tiny chance that they would be asked.

At the store, harry and Hermione looked like two regular people shopping for groceries. They were not stared at or talked about by others, they finally felt normal, they did not feel the shadows of the magical world that used to haunt them, they did not feel the pain and loss as much as before. In other words, this was the best day they had had in a long time.

Returning to Harry's bedroom, they unloaded the bags and packed the food into the cupboards leaving out what they would eat. While Hermione was preparing the food, harry took the chance to transform the two chairs they were previously using into dining room chairs, he then conjured a small round table to eat at.

They dished up and sat at the table. The entire meal was spent getting to know each other better, not in the sense that they did before, this time they decided to know the happier things and simpler things of each other's lives.

They found out each other's favourites and dislikes, the best memory they had and even the best moment of their lives. The two were shocked that receiving their Hogwarts letter was the best moment. Harry had assumed that Hermione's would be something to do with her family growing up. Hermione assumed that his would be about Ginny.

The next week and a half went by quickly as neither was pained by unleashed emotions. Harry had asked if they could take a break on the whole releasing emotions sessions, which she had happily agreed to. Hermione was surprised when harry transfigured the bathroom in to an indoor pool, it wasn't the biggest pool, but it allowed them to have some fun.

Hermione then added some chairs to the side along with a small table, silently harry and Hermione were having a mini competition, neither minded what the other did but they always tried to do something more than the other. Hermione knew that she could not compete with Harry's power, yet it managed to make him happy and that was all she wanted.

In three days time, harry would be seventeen and they would be on their way to number 12. The guard had called it the safe house, yet both harry and Hermione knew they meant Grimmuald place. Until then they had decided to continue with their talks, Hermione had seen the darkness appear in Harry's eyes again and she knew it was because of returning to number 12.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I do not own harry potter, never have and never will. I make no money from this; I just enjoy playing around in the magical world that JK Rowling created for us.

Chapter 5

Hermione was worried. She could see harry start to draw back as the time went by before they left. They were going to number 12 Grimmuald place in less than 24 hours.

'Harry, we need to have another talk. It's not going to be the same as before, I need you to trust me completely' said Hermione.

Harry got up from his bed and made his way to the kitchen table where Hermione was.

'You know I trust you completely Hermione, if I didn't do you think I would have told you everything that I have told you' he replied as he sat down.

'I know, but I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you to answer them honestly. I can see you slipping back harry, and it's scaring me'

Harry saw her concern and took her hand into his. Over the past few weeks, they had become comfortable in each other's touches; it was second nature to them now.

'I promise I will answer anything you have to ask, just be patient with me if it takes me a while before I reply. I understand where you are coming from, I can feel it inside of myself and its scaring me too, and I don't want to go back to where I was before' he ended in a whisper yet Hermione still heard.

'I know that they said we were to go to a 'safe house', you think its number 12 don't you'

'Yes'

'Why don't you want to go back?'

'I don't want the reminder, when I go back ill expect to see Sirius sitting at the kitchen table or coming down the stairs every morning'

'But you know that he won't be there and that scares you'

'yes' harry paused, Hermione knew he was going to continue and waited for him like he had asked, 'I know that he's gone but I can't accept that he's not here anymore'

'You're afraid that if you admit to yourself he's really not here, that you'll finally lose your last chance of family'

Harry could only nod his head as he was holding back the tears in his eyes. Hermione gave him a reassuring squeeze of his hand.

'I know this is hard Harry, but you have to acknowledge his death. You can't hold onto something that isn't there anymore' Hermione didn't want to tell him this, but as much as it hurt him to hear it, she knew it had to be said.

'I can't, I don't want to, he was the only person I had left that was family. He may have not been directly related but he was my godfather' harry was now openly crying, Hermione had moved to crouch by his side, her hand still intertwined with his.

'Say it with me harry, he's gone'

Harry shook his head

'He's gone'

Harry continued

'He's gone' whispered Hermione

Harry finally stopped and looked at Hermione

'He's gone' said harry. With that, Hermione stood up and held the shaking body of harry close to her. They stayed like that for a while before harry had cried himself to sleep in the chair. Hermione levitated his body and placed him on his bed. She took the covers and gently placed them over his sleeping form, when she went to stand, harry gently grabbed her arm,

'Don't leave me... don't be like everyone else'

Hermione nodded and lay next to harry, his head resting on her shoulder as she hugged him. After 20 minutes, she had cried herself to sleep as well.

The next morning, harry was the first to awake, he had had a good sleep, filled with the same dreams as he had dreamed earlier in the summer. He opened his eyes to see Hermione at his side with her arm draped over his chest, he had no idea how she ended up in his bed, yet he didn't care. He took his hand and cleared the strands of hair that covered her face. When he tucked the pieces behind her ear, he felt her tighten her hold on him and move closer into his body.

Harry lay back, staring at his ceiling. It was still another 4 hours until him and Hermione would be escorted to the 'safe house'. Harry took in a deep breath and whispered to the air.

'I now understand that you are no longer here Sirius, I but I know that you will never be gone. Hermione helped me understand that, she's been able to lend a hand when no one else could. If it wasn't for her, I don't know where I would be, probably dead by now. I'm glad that she sees me as harry, not the boy-who-lived or the chosen one or any other titles I've gotten over the years. She keeps me grounded, she keeps me alive. I'm glad that you got to meet her during our little time together. I promised myself that I would keep people away, but I can't seem to do that with her. I want to push her away for her own safety, yet there's a stronger force telling me that I mustn't let her out of my sight. I don't know what to do.'

Hermione had woken up when harry and tucked her hair behind her ear, and out of reaction, had held him closer to show him she was there. She had heard him speak to Sirius, she heard him speak about how he appreciated her. When he had finished she lifted her head to look at him,

'I do, keep those you trust close harry, being alone doesn't help anyone, look what happened to Voldemort'

Harry smiled down at Hermione, no matter what the situation; she always knew what to say.

'I'm glad you think that Hermione, I don't think I would be able to push you away, to take you out of my life. It seems that a life without you right now is a life I would not want to live'

Hermione's head went back to Harry's shoulder and she replaced her arm around him. Harry wrapped his arms around her and they lay there on the bed hugging each other.

Harry kept his position and closed his eyes,

'Not to ruin the moment or anything, but Tonks and the guard will be by in 3 and a half hours. We still need to pack, get ready and return the room into its original form'

As harry mentioned the time they had left, Hermione had gotten up and made her way to the bathroom. Harry gave a small chuckle and began turning the room into its previous state, leaving the closets so that they could pack.

Hermione was in the bathroom getting ready for her shower. She was standing in front of the mirror, with tears forming in her eyes. Harry's words kept replaying in her head. She was struggling to understand what he had said. He wanted to push her away, yet felt the need to keep her close so he could protect her. He admitted that he wouldn't want to live a life without her, yet still had thoughts of taking her out of his life. Harry did not realise the problems that would cause if she were to leave him.

When she had made the vow in her first year to always be beside him, it created a magical contract between them. At the time she did not know her words meant more than a promise to herself. If harry were to push her away, it would eventually kill her.

Hermione got in the shower and cried under the water. Not because of the contract or Harry's conflict of her safety, but because she wanted him. From the beginning of the summer when she arrived, herself and harry had become closer than friends, closer than even best friends. They knew each other's deepest fears and secrets and understood each other better than anyone else in the world. Her feelings for harry had grown past friendship during this time as she realised how close their lives were similar to each other. She was crying because she knew that he needed her but not in the sense that she needed him.

Harry had fixed the bedroom so that it was back to normal. He had begun to pack his stuff, excluding the outfit he was wearing for the day. He was now making his bed when Hermione exited the bathroom. She gave him a smile and made her way to her trunk to start packing. Harry grabbed his towel and clothes and made his way to the bathroom.

When he entered, he could smell Hermione's shampoo and soap in the air. It was like an attack on his senses. He closed the door and stood still, breathing deeply through his nose to get as much as he could before his own scent would take over.

Standing under the hot water, Harry's thoughts went back to the morning where he woke up with Hermione. He could not help but admit to himself that it felt right to have her so close to him. Throughout the summer he had felt the need to touch her and be close to her. He took advantage of when she was crying to hold her, it was to comfort her, yet it comforted him as well. He knew it was wrong, but for the first time in his life, he didn't care.

He and Hermione had become so close over the past weeks that harry had formed a new bond with her. Harry knew he wanted to be more than friends with Hermione, to be able to hold her close all the time, to be able to protect her when need be, to be able to kiss her.

Exiting the shower and getting dressed he left the bathroom and closed the door. Walking back into the room, he quickly removed the bathroom from the house and put away his towel and dirty clothes. Hermione had conjured some food to eat and was sitting on Harry's bed with a plate of food. With a wave of his wand, harry produced a plate of food for himself and joined Hermione on his bed, sitting as close as possible without making her uncomfortable.

After they had finished eating, they cleared their dishes and double checked that they had everything. It was still an hour before the guard arrived so harry and Hermione relaxed on the bed. After ten minutes of silence, Hermione quickly sat up and stared at harry,

'Oh my god harry, I'm so sorry, happy birthday' harry chuckled at her actions and sat up, placing an arm around Hermione.

'It's ok Hermione, would you believe that I also forgot. After the event of the past few days, I completely forgot, it's not like I was looking forward to it like others because I can already do magic. To me, it's just another day'

Hermione playfully pushed his chest and he continued to laugh. She enjoyed hearing him laugh, it caused her to smile and let out a small laugh.

For the next half an hour, they resumed their position on the bed. In a complete state of leisure, the two did not realise that they had manoeuvred themselves so that harry had his arm under Hermione's head and was now playing with her hair, stroking her head and drawing out single strands until they fell. Hermione was balled up against his side with her leg draped over his.

Harry and Hermione were taken out of their state of relaxation when several pop's where heard throughout the room.

Opening his eyes he could see the smiling and happy face of Tonks, the paranoid and stern face of mad-eye moody, the calm and gentle face of Kingsley Shacklebolt and the confused face of someone he did not know. When he stopped his motion of playing with Hermione's hair, she too opened her eyes and jumped up quickly when seeing the audience of people standing before them. This made harry and tonks chuckle along with Kingsley trying to hide a smile on his face.

'Wotcher Harry, you all packed and ready' said tonks when the laughter died down and Hermione had rid herself of her bright red face.

'Hey Tonks, were all done' replied harry.

Harry apparated along with Kingsley and Hermione went with Tonks as they all made their way to the safe house. As they appeared in an open area, harry and Hermione knew they were at number 12 when the house appeared as they exited the park where they arrived.

Hermione grabbed Harry's hand, with a reassuring smile, they made their way in.

A/N: They finally made their way to number 12! I don't know if I should make Ron an insufferable prat or if he should still be a friend to harry and Hermione? I'm leaning towards being a prat. Let me know what you think...


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I do not own harry potter, never have and never will. I make no money from this; I just enjoy playing around in the magical world that JK Rowling created for us.

So, I've decided to make Ron a prat towards harry while still trying to pursue Hermione.

Chapter 6

Harry closed his eyes as he entered the house. Seeing how uncomfortable he was, Hermione stood in front of him and placed a hand on his cheek.

'Open your eyes harry, look at me' whispered Hermione. Harry opened his eyes slowly and focused them on Hermione, staring deep into her eyes concentrating on her and her alone.

'You can do this harry, remember what we talked about. Remember what you told me' harry slowly moved his gaze from Hermione and looked down the hallway. The house was still dark and gloomy; it held the presence of a prison. After a few seconds of staring at the hallway, harry moved his gaze back to Hermione,

'I can't do it, it looks like such a prison, if it wasn't for that then Sirius would not have wanted to always get out' harry whispered to Hermione with tears forcing their way out and down his cheeks.

Looking into Harry's eyes and seeing the tears, Hermione began fighting back her emotions; she had to be strong for him.

'One step at a time harry' said Hermione, when harry nodded she took a step back. Harry took a step forward mimicking her actions. Their eyes never left contact from each other.

After a few minutes, harry and Hermione had made their way into the kitchen. Being so focused on each other, they did not see the confused looks on the other people's faces that were currently occupying the room.

Ron leaned over to Ginny, still staring at harry and Hermione,

'What the hell does he think he's doing staring at Hermione like that' said Ron in an angered whisper. Ginny punched his arm.

'Ouch, what was that for'

'Harry may be staring at Hermione but you don't see Hermione is staring back at him the same way. Don't be a prat Ron' said Ginny as returned to reading the daily prophet, ignoring Ron.

Ron moved away from Ginny with a glare upon his face, he's eyes never leaving harry. Rubbing his shoulder as he slouched down into his chair and hints of redness could be seen appearing on his ears.

Molly saw the two entering and after her initial confusion, she felt that they would need to be alone. After clearing everyone out of the kitchen, including an angry Ron, she closed the door quietly and made her way to the other room.

Hermione, noticing the kitchen was empty now, took her hands and closed Harry's eyes.

'I need you to keep them closed, trust me' she said as she made herself invisible with a disillusion charm. Stepping to the far corner of the room she asked harry to open his eyes.

Hearing Hermione, harry slowly opened his eyes. He stood staring at an empty kitchen. Wanting to close his eyes again, he forced himself to look around. Falling to his knees with his hands holding his hair he whispered over and over to himself,

'He's gone, he's gone, he's gone...'

Hermione cancelled the charm and made her way to harry. Kneeling in front of him she took his hands out his hair and held them in her own.

'Are you ok' she asked. Harry nodded in response and stood up bring her with him. When they had made their way up, harry brought her into a hug.

'Thank you Hermione, not just for now, but for everything you've ever done for me. I know over the years I've never said thank you, but I want you to know that you have helped me and been there for me a lot more than anyone else. You're my closest friend; I don't know what I would do without you. You've heard this before, but I wasn't talking to you then, now I am.' After harry finished he moved away from Hermione so that they were looking into each other's eyes. Bringing up a hand he removed stray strands of hair that had fallen in her face and tucked them behind her ear. Holding her face in his hands, he leaned forward and placed his lips on hers. Not feeling her move away, he began kissing her.

At this moment, Ron made his way into the kitchen. Seeing harry kissing Hermione he charged at them tackling harry and taking him down to the floor. Sitting up, Ron began beating harry with punches across his face.

Hermione was in shock, a few seconds ago she was living her dream and now she was watching the man of her dreams getting beaten up by Ron. The first thing that came to her mind happened to be her fist action. Taking out her wand, she sent a stunner at Ron. As he was hit, Ron was thrown into the wall and fell into an unconscious lump on the floor.

Rushing over to harry, she began crying when she saw his face. He had blood all over and was slipping in and out of consciousness, his glasses were smashed and a few shards were imbedded in his forehead and cheeks. As she held his head in her lap with tears falling down her face, the kitchen door opened to show Remus Lupin and Tonks standing with their wands out.

Lupin rushed towards harry and Hermione while tonks made her way to check on Ron. As Lupin tried to get a look at harry, Hermione took a protective stance that made the werewolf back away.

'Hermione, it's me Remus, I need to look at him to make sure he's ok, I'm not going to hurt him' said lupin from a distance. Hermione shook her head and held harry closer to her body. Lupin kept reassuring Hermione about his actions and she reluctantly got up and stepped away from harry to allow Remus to check him.

Tonks had revived Ron and escorted him out to his bedroom. When she returned she aided Remus in helping harry. When they had completed their tests, Tonks levitated harry and took him into Sirius' old bedroom where she laid him on the bed. After harry had left, Remus turned to the shaking form of Hermione who had tears in her eyes and white knuckles of anger.

'Harry has a broken jaw and nose along with a slight concussion. He has a bruised tail bone and will have a black eye on the left side of his face', Hermione had heard what Remus said yet she still stood staring into the unknown.

After receiving no reply, Remus made his way to harry leaving Hermione to herself. After a few minutes, Hermione made her way into the bedroom where she saw tonks and Remus cleaning up Harry's face. Removing the blood with a wet towel by gently dabbing his face, Hermione was able to see the cut on his lip and the bruises that were already starting to form around his jaw, nose and left eye.

When he was cleaned, Remus and Tonks left the room. Hermione made her way to the side of Harry's bed. Conjuring a chair she sat down and held his hand in hers, silent sobs shattering her body.

After an hour, harry began to stir. Hermione lifted her head from the bed and stood up over him, stroking his hair.

'Harry, Harry are you awake, please be awake harry...please' ending in a silent whisper with her eyes closed, she felt a squeeze on her hand. Opening her eyes she saw harry looking back at her. Tears made their way down her cheeks as she saw the swollen face of harry, she squeezed his hand back and a smile played on Harry's lips followed by an expression of pain.

Noticing Harry's look of hurt, Hermione grabbed the potion vials from the side of the bed. Opening the pain relieving potion, she opened his lips as his jaw was shut, and slowly poured it to the side so he could swallow.

'I gave you the pain relieving potion because I need to give you the skele-grow now and that's going to hurt'

Harry gave a nod of approval and Hermione repeated the process this time pouring down the potion to help him fix his jaw and nose. She did not want to give him the last potion but knew that he needed it to allow the bones in his face to repair. Opening his mouth once again she emptied out the sleeping potion. Before drifting off, harry grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled her towards him. Sitting up a little he gave her a soft kiss on the lips before falling back down and into unconsciousness. Hermione resumed her position on the side of his bed, still holding onto his hand, never letting him go.

Ron was pissed. He had woken up this morning to find out that Hermione had spent the past month staying with harry, declining his invite to stay at the burrow with him. Then when they arrived, she couldn't keep her eyes off him and he couldn't keep his eyes off her. To make matters worse, he had walked in on them kissing and then got blasted into the wall for trying to get harry off his girl. At the moment, Ron was forced to stay in the bedroom. Pacing inside his room Ron placed a silencing charm around him and decided to vent,

'How could he, he knew she was mine, he knew that I liked her. He has to have everything doesn't he? Is the fame and fortune not enough for the precious boy-who-lived, the stupid chosen-one? He has everything already but can't help himself in taking my girl'. Ron sat down, the headache he had from his concussion becoming worse as his heart rate increased. He hit his mattress with both hands as he stood up and screamed as loud as he could to rid himself of the anger and pain.

Five hours later, Hermione found herself waking up still holding onto Harry's hand under her head. She sat up straight and stretched, taking his hand in hers as soon as she relaxed. Looking at the sleeping form of harry, she noticed how his nose had completely healed yet still had bruising. Running a scan with her wand, she found that his jaw bone was healed yet still swollen and bruised badly. She reluctantly got up from the chair and let go of Harry's hand, with a kiss on his forehead she made her way down the kitchen in hopes of finding something to eat and drink.

When she entered the kitchen, she noticed that the area of wall in which Ron had slammed into had not been repaired, taking out her wand, she created a ward around the area preventing any magic from entering so that no one was able to repair it. Tucking her wand back into her pocket Hermione found that there was lunch already made and made herself a plate, pouring herself a glass of pumpkin juice, Hermione sat down and ate.

When she was finished, Hermione cleared up and made her way back to harry. Before she could leave, Ron came down and met her at the entrance on the kitchen.

'Hey hermy, you're welcome by the way, I saw how harry was practically attacking you'

With every word that Ron said Hermione became more furious, her eyes turning darker and darker. Looking Ron dead in the eyes she growled in anger,

'Get away from me; I don't want to see your face. If you talk to me again you will be going through the wall instead of crashing into it' Hermione pushed past Ron and made her way back up the stairs.

Ron became angered, he was protecting her and she didn't even see it. He stared at her as she made her way up the stairs.

'We'll see potter, Hermione is mine', with that Ron made his way back to his room, stooping in front of Harry's room and looking through the slightly opened door, he saw Hermione sitting on the chair holding his hand and caressing his hair. This only fuelled the fire within Ron as he slammed his bedroom door shut.

A/N: I know that Ron is turning into a Malfoy type, but that's what jealousy does to a person. Please review and let me know if you like or dislike or even if you have suggestions, if I can't find out what you think, how am I to continue?


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I do not own harry potter, never have and never will. I make no money from this; I just enjoy playing around in the magical world that JK Rowling created for us.

Chapter 7

The next day, everyone in grimmuald place was on edge. Harry had not woken up and Hermione had not left his side. Ron was still in his room and when it was time to eat he merely sat and ate without talking, returning to his bedroom when he was done.

Remus, Tonks, molly and Ginny sat in the kitchen after breakfast. Ron had returned left after eating and Hermione had not come down, meaning that harry had not woken up yet.

'Can someone please tell me what is going on' said Ginny

'we would if we knew ourselves Ginny, Tonks and I rushed into the kitchen after we heard the crash and found Ron lying on the floor with the wall behind him cracked and harry lying in Hermione's lap bleeding terribly and slipping into unconsciousness' replied Remus as he stood up and paced throughout the kitchen. 'We have no clue as to what happened before that, Ron won't talk to anyone and I don't like to admit it but I'm a bit scared going to Hermione at the moment.'

'I'll go and talk to her. She needs a friend now' Ginny got up and made her way upstairs.

Upon entering the room, she saw Hermione holding onto harry hand as her head rested on her folded arms, her eyes focused on harry.

'Hermione, can we talk' whispered Ginny so that if Hermione was asleep, she would not wake her. Hermione looked up at the door and at seeing Ginny, wiped her face to rid herself of the tears that had fallen.

'Sure Ginny, what do you need' at Hermione's approval, Ginny closed the door and made her way over to the bed.

'We're worried Hermione, all of us. We have no idea about what happened yesterday. Remus is practically loosing it; Ron only leaves his room to eat and doesn't talk to anyone. Mums gone around the bend because of his behaviour. We need to know what happened.'

Hermione let out a small growl when hearing Ron's name, but nodded to Ginny showing her understanding to the situation.

'When we arrived yesterday, harry couldn't take being inside the house. I told him to focus on me and we took small steps making our way into the kitchen. That's why we were staring at each other. I helped harry realise that Sirius was really gone and after he hugged me, we kissed. Ron walked in and tackled harry, beating him into the state he is now. I did the only thing that came to mind and stunned him, forcing him to fly across the room and into the wall. That's when Remus and Tonks arrived.' Hermione started her explanation in a small voice getting angrier when mentioning Ron.

Ginny listened carefully and wasn't shocked when Hermione mentioned the kiss. When Hermione finished, Ginny stood up and gave her a hug before leaving the room to return to the kitchen where she relayed the information she had just received.

The kitchen was silent; everyone was busy digesting the news. No one was surprised to find that harry and Hermione kissed, what they were confused about was the fact that Ron had attacked harry. Remus was furious, he wanted to go and beat Ron for what he did but was held back by the rest. No one could stop Molly from going upstairs and she made her way out the kitchen and up to Ron's bedroom.

'Ronald Bilius Weasley, what have you done!' screamed Molly as she slammed the door after entering. 'How could you, harry is your friend. He has been through so much and you go and beat him to a pulp, on his birthday of all days!'

'He was attacking Hermione mum, I had to stop him!' defended Ron.

'Attacking Hermione. That is the most absurd thing I have heard in my entire life. They were kissing Ron, he likes her and she obviously likes him.' Ginny had entered the room now and was tearing Ron a new one. Surprisingly, Molly did nothing to stop her and only nodded her head in agreement.

'You guys weren't there, you didn't see it. I was protecting her' said Ron. 'Harry Potter, saviour of the wizarding world, he has to have everything doesn't he, he knew I liked her, he's known since fourth year. Now he has the girl, along with all his fame and money.'

Molly and Ginny stood with expressions of shock and anger spread across their faces. Ginny walked up to Ron and slapped him across the face before storming out the room and slamming the door. Ron was turning red with anger as he drew his wand to her back; molly however, was quicker and disarmed him before he was able to cast his spell. Pocketing his wand, she shook her head in disapproval before leaving the room and placing a locking charm on the door. She needed to speak to her husband about this.

Hermione was lying next to harry in the bed when Ginny knocked on the door and entered. Hermione was still in shock after hearing the way Ron had reacted and why he acted the way he did when harry and herself had arrived. She knew Ron had a jealous streak in him but she never thought that it would get this bad. Ron said he liked her; he had never given her any reason to believe that. What annoyed her most was hearing that Ron had said harry gets everything. Ginny had to stand by the door to prevent Hermione from getting up and going to him after hearing it.

While Hermione was thinking in her head she felt harry begin to stir beside her. Getting up and standing on the side of the bed still holding his hand, she watched as he started jerking and twitching, letting out an ear splitting scream. She tried her best to wake him yet he continued thrashing crying out at random intervals.

Remus, Tonks and Molly rushed into the room stopping before the bed. Molly placed a hand over her mouth before dropping it down.

'Remus, is this what I think it is?' asked Molly.

Remus placed a hand on Harry's forehead, feeling it and registering the icy temperature. He looked at Molly with wide eyes and gave a nod. Molly rushed out of the room mentioning something about getting the supplies and that they should have known this would happen.

Hermione was scared. Everyone else knew what was happening yet she had no idea. Her eyes were as wide as Remus' and tears began forming and falling down her cheeks. Tonks walked towards Hermione and gently placed her hands on her shoulders, pushing slightly she guided Hermione to the hallway where she was left as Tonks made her way back into the room. Hermione leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground, holding her legs close to her chest. Molly made her way back to the room stopping as she saw Hermione on the floor, deciding to give the materials to Remus first before coming outside to check on Hermione.

Molly returned to the hallway where she helped Hermione stand up before leading her towards the kitchen. As Hermione sat on the chair with the blank look still on her face, she whispered into the air,

'What's happening to him' it wasn't really a question to anyone but herself as she wrecked her brain to think of why harry was in pain and acting the way he was.

Molly heard her question and took a seat next to Hermione, placing a hand on her shoulder to get her attention.

'Hermione dear, harry is going through the phase in a witch or wizards life where their magic reaches maturity. He is coming into his full power now.'

Hermione's expression turned into disappointment,

'How could I forget, it happened to me as well, but I wasn't in that much pain . When my magic matured I was uncomfortable after the initial shock but after the first day it wasn't as bad. I need to go to him; he needs someone to help him through this. I understand that Remus and Tonks are there, but he needs someone else.'

Hermione rushed out the kitchen and passed Ginny as she made her way to harry. Ginny went into the kitchen and was told informed on the situation.

Hermione entered the room and stopped as she turned around to see harry after closing the door. Harry was blue. His face was holding the appearance of extreme pain and his lips were turning a dark shade of purple. Remus and tonks had placed blankets over him, securing him so tightly he was unable to move. They were now sitting next to harry waiting for it to pass; there was not much else they could do. Hermione joined them taking up her chair on the other side, placing her hand on his head she felt the odd sensation of extreme cold, with a slight molten hot temperature. Looking closer, Hermione saw that Harry's scar was shining bright red instead of his pale blue colouring on his face.

Remus and tonks looked up at Hermione's gasp, their eyes following her gaze to Harry's forehead. Hearing her reaction scared Remus a little as he thought that something was wrong, but seeing what Hermione was looking at he realised her shock and explained to her,

'There's nothing we can do about that Hermione; we've done all we can and now we just wait. There is no way of telling how long this is going to go on for. Mine went on for 3 days, it all depends on how powerful harry is and how much his magic has to mature. Some wizards are powerful yet only had to suffer for a day because their magic did not need a lot to mature. Others can go through their magic maturing for a week and yet they are not powerful. It's a completely random process; we will only know the results when he is done.'

Remus finished talking and as he stood up he gave one last look at Harry and made his way back down to the kitchen to inform molly on Harry's form. Tonks followed soon after and Hermione was left alone. Not caring about Harry's current temperature, she climbed into the bed and held harry close to her. Placing a blanket over herself she tightened her hold on harry. She knew her body heat would not help much, but for once in her life she went against what her head was telling her and held on to harry as if her life depended on it.

Still holding onto harry, Hermione cried herself to sleep. She couldn't help think that even after harry had moved past his pain, he was now suffering again for something he could not control.

A/N: I want to know what you think, good or bad, I really don't care. Reviews help me write and without them I wouldn't know what to do. Are you excited to find out what happens to harry? What about Ron?


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: I do not own harry potter, never have and never will. I make no money from this; I just enjoy playing around in the magical world that JK Rowling created for us.

Chapter 8

Later that evening, Arthur Weasley returned to grimmuald place after three straight days, finishing some work at the ministry. Entering the kitchen, he was greeted by Remus, Tonks, Molly and Ginny. After receiving a plate of food he was informed on Harry's condition and the events of the previous day. Arthur looked at his wife who's face held the expression, that if put in words would say 'we need to talk in private, its serious'. Arthur gave his wife a nod and proceeded to finish his meal.

Excusing himself from the table, he made his way to his and Molly's bedroom where he showered and changed into night clothes before settling in bed. Molly entered the room as he climbed into bed.

'Arthur, we need to talk about Ron. I don't know what to do' she said as she changed into night clothes and then joined her husband in bed.

When Molly had settled, she faced her husband with concern etched on her face,

'I don't know what to do Arthur, I know Ron has never liked being unable to buy new clothes and the latest broom, but I never thought that his jealousy of harry and his money would lead to him attacking both harry and then Ginny. I took away his wand and locked him in his room. I can't do this alone; I need to know what you think we should do.'

Arthur listened to his wife speak, seeing the tears begin to form. He pulled her into his arms and comforted her as she cried.

'I know dear, I've sensed his jealousy increasing over the years and I had hoped that it would not come to this. I thought of what I would do if the situation arose and I hate to do it, but since he has attacked Ginny, I'm afraid he is no longer apart of this family. No child of mine would attack a family member or a friend unless in defence and I will not tolerate it.'

Arthur and molly did not know that at that moment, the clock in the burrow held one less arm. Ronald Weasley was no longer apart of the house of Weasley. That night, Arthur had held his wife as she cried herself to sleep.

Ron woke up the next morning to find an owl perched on his window ledge. Opening the window to retrieve the letter he gave the owl a treat and let it set off. Opening the letter, Ron became redder with each word he saw.

_Dear Mr. Ronald_

_This letter is to inform you on your removal from the house of Weasley at exactly 10:52pm of last evening._

_You have been removed by head of house Mr. Arthur Weasley, witnessed by Mrs. Molly Weasley._

_You have the right to maintain the last name of Weasley, yet this can be changed at your request._

_Gavin Redford_

_Ministry of Magic_

Ron crushed the letter in his hand and walked towards his door. His mother may have placed a locking charm on the door, but that did not mean the door could not be taken down. Ron rammed his shoulder into the door and on the fourth try managed to break the door of the hinges. Ron couldn't help but think that this may be one of the advantages of being 6 foot 5 inches tall.

Making his way down stairs, he pushed open the kitchen door with force, startling the occupants. Throwing the crumpled letter on the table, he turned to face his father.

'What the hell is that about' he said through clenched teeth. Arthur took the piece of paper, opening it so he could read. Passing the letter to his wife he looked at Ron,

'If I read correctly, it's about the fact that you are no longer apart of this family, Ronald. Over the past years, your increase of jealousy over Harry has become too much and when you attacked Ginny, well...that was the breaking point and final mark on my decision and actions'

Ron was now a deep red, taking in deep breaths, his knuckles where white and his body was tense. He walked towards his former mother and grabbed the letter from her hands, before walking out the kitchen he looked back,

'This is the last you'll see of me' Ron turned and exited the kitchen making his way to his room. Packing everything he could into his trunk, he picked it up and made his way downstairs. Once in the hallway, he could see his ex- parents standing at the entrance way. No one said a word as Arthur threw Ron's wand on the floor before opening the door waiting for him to leave.

Ron left grimmuald place, nobody knew where he was going and once he had left the premises, the knowledge of number 12 was removed from his memory.

Molly was in tears, she knew it was the right thing to do, yet no matter what the circumstance, no mother wanted to lose their child. Arthur did the only thing he could, held her close and let her cry it out. The house was silent for the next hour as everyone was still in a little shock from what had happened. Ginny had not come out her room and no one had been let in, every person had let her be and decided that she needed her own time.

Throughout the rest of the day, molly and Arthur kept each other's company as they too stayed in their room. Arthur still held his wife as she cried and occasionally let out the odd tear that had build up. Remus sat in the kitchen alone, drinking a cup of tea while thinking about the day's events and a certain pink haired witch, Tonks, who had been called out to a situation and was needed for her metamorphous abilities. Remus chuckled at the way tonks used her ability for the joy of others and not for the reasons that most would use them for. Tonks hated portraying others for her own benefit or for the advantage to get what she wanted.

Hermione was still lying next to Harry. Her body temperature dropping as she held the ice frame of the one she loved. She was cold, but didn't care. She had no idea about what had happened with Ron, she had no thoughts concerning the outside world. Everything she had, she gave to Harry. When he moved, she held him tighter. He had not screamed since the first signs of his status, yet he still gave spontaneous jerks now and then. When he begun to lash out, she used her body and all the strength she had to hold him down. To say that she was exhausted was an understatement. She was weak and tired, she refused to sleep in case harry needed her, and she hadn't left his side to eat. The one time that she had left his side was to use the bathroom.

Hermione was holding onto harry, when he suddenly began to jerk. Before she could grab him, he sat up straight and let out an ear piercing scream. He then proceeded to twitch and jolt, throwing the blankets and covers that he had off. Hermione was too weak to do anything so she ran to the door and yelled for Remus before she eventually passed out.

Hearing Hermione's screams, Remus ran up the stairs where he was met by Molly, Arthur and Ginny, all standing outside their rooms. Walking into the room and seeing the situation, Remus first made a move towards Harry. Tapping into his wolf, he used his strength to hold down harry until he calmed down. Remus then lifted up the boy and put him back into his bed, placing the blankets and covers back over him.

While Remus was holding down harry, Molly had checked Hermione. Seeing nothing dramatically wrong with the young witch, Hermione was then levitated into her bed so she could rest. By Ginny's suggestion, Hermione's bed was moved next to harry and after making sure that the two were ok, Remus, molly and Arthur made their way back down to the kitchen to talk, while Ginny sat by Hermione and Harry.

When the adults had left, Ginny moved Hermione so that she was as close to Harry as possible. Taking the chair that Hermione had used, Ginny sat and stayed by her friend and ex-boyfriend.

In the silence, Ginny was left to her thoughts.

'_I always knew they would be together'_

'_She's a lot better for him than I was'_

'_I always wished to be the girlfriend of the boy-who-lived, but he's not that boy. Technically he is, but as a person he's just Harry, and Hermione's been able to see that from the beginning.'_

'_I did not mean to lead him on; I didn't want to hurt his feelings. I was never meant to be with him. I didn't want him to waste what he has of a life on me, when he could be happy with someone who really loves him, as Harry, not as Harry Potter The-Chosen-One.'_

'_I know that they will be happy, I just hope he can still be my friend, even after what Ron did.'_

Ginny now had tears in her eyes, after wiping them away she made her way out the room and closed the door. Making her way back into her own room, she closed the door, lied down on her bed and gently let go of all her build up emotions. Slowly, she cried herself into a dreamless sleep.

At the end of the day, Hermione and harry were still lying in their beds. Remus sat at the kitchen table in silence, still drinking a cup of tea. Ginny was asleep in her bed with tear streaks running down her face. Arthur and molly Weasley had both cried themselves to sleep in each other's arms and tonks was still on her mission with the Auror's.

In the history of all bad days, today, in the reasoning of the occupants of number 12, was definitely in running for first place.

A/N: I know that this chapter really wasn't as exciting, but its long story and you have to get an understanding on the characters before it becomes an action packed story.

You've read it, now review it. I don't really mind if what you have to say is critical about the story. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to tell me your thoughts.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: I do not own harry potter, never have and never will. I make no money from this; I just enjoy playing around in the magical world that JK Rowling created for us.

Sorry it took so long to update, but I am on vacation and have travelled back home to see family and friends for the first time in 2 years. I promise to update as soon as I can, but I have been driving around to see everyone and when I say I have had no free time to sit down and write the chapters, I'm not exaggerating. Please enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 9

The next morning when Hermione woke up, she was greeted by stare of emerald eyes. Upon further inspection, Hermione screamed and jumped out of her bed. Making her way to the furthest corner of the room she placed her hand over her mouth and slid down the wall into a sitting position where she continued to take in deep breaths while having a mild panic attack.

Remus heard the scream from inside the kitchen to where he ran up the stairs and entered Harry's room. When he entered the room he saw Hermione first and ran towards her. Crouching down, he was about to ask her what was wrong when she lifted her arm and pointed towards the bed. Changing his view to follow her direction, Remus stood and got in a protective stance in front of Hermione.

On the other side of the room stood harry. Except that harry did not look like harry. 'Remus, what are you doing, it's me...' as harry spoke, he ended in a whisper as he heard and noticed the change in his voice.

Remus relaxed and helped Hermione to her feet as she got up. Walking towards harry, she lifted her hand and placed it on his cheek. 'Harry?'

Harry looked at her and nodded his head taking Hermione into his arms and pulling her close to his body, he held her tight as he stroked her hair with his hand.

Remus made his way out of the room, giving the couple some time to themselves. Making his way down the hallway, he notified the Weasley's on Harry's condition and informed them on the fact that they should not disturb him now as he is with Hermione. What he failed to mention was the change in Harry's appearance.

Back in the room, harry and Hermione still stood holding one another until harry pulled back a little to look at Hermione.

'Why did you and Remus react like that when you saw me', harry knew that his voice had changed as he could hear it himself yet felt no different than before.

Hermione gave a small smile, which made harry smile, and let go of her hold to stand in front of harry. 'Harry, you can be so daft before. Do remember a few days ago when we stood by one another?' after receiving a nod she continued. 'How much taller where you, to me?'

Harry took a second to comprehend what Hermione had said and then it hit him. Before, harry was about two inches taller than Hermione, but at the moment he was about a foot taller than her. He thought back to when they would hug. Her head would always rest on his shoulder, but not even a minute ago, she had to put her head on his chest.

Harry stumbled back and fell on to the bed in a daze, his eyes wide and mouth slightly open. He lifted his hands in front of his face and noticed how they had increased in size. He now had longer fingers and a bigger palm. He looked around the room and stood when he spotted the full length mirror on the cupboard door. Walking slowly to see his reflection, harry nearly fainted when he saw the person standing looking back at him.

Harry was now at an estimated 6 foot 5, having grown a foot taller. His hair had grown and was now by his shoulders, which were now broader and more defined. He had grown a slight beard and moustaches, making his head resemble that of someone who had been stuck on a dessert island for a month. The clothes that he was wearing when he passed out were now tightly wrapping themselves around his extremely larger body. After a few minutes of staring at himself, Hermione walked up beside him and took a hold of his hand.

'I guess this means a shopping trip, and a stop at the hairdresser. The long hair looks good, but I prefer it short and messy.' Harry gave a small chuckle and a nod of agreement. 'But for now, this will have to do'. Hermione took out her wand and transformed Harry's small clothing that he was now wearing a pair of black shorts and white v-neck shirt that defined his broad shoulders and chest. Hermione gave a smirk, which lead to harry raising an eyebrow.

'Like what you see Hermione?' this made her blush and playfully slap harry on the shoulder. Harry went to get a pair of shoes when he realised that his feet had grown as well. Enlarging the pair of black slip-ons, he made his way to the bathroom where transfigured his toothbrush into a razor and proceeded to remove the hair on his face, never having done this before, harry was left with a few cuts on his face. He decided not to try anything with his hair and take Hermione's advice on going to get it done properly. Leaving the bathroom, he went back to get Hermione and the two made their way down to the kitchens hand in hand.

Before entering the kitchen, harry and Hermione stopped to hear the conversation between Remus, molly and Arthur.

'I don't care Arthur, the fact that harry just went through his mature in magic will be known to everyone who knows when his birthday is, but his new power if he has had an increase, must be kept a secret. Voldemort obviously knows about this will most likely test harry to find how he has grown.'

'You are correct Remus but how is harry going to mask his magic to appear as if nothing has changed. School starts soon and there's no possible way for him manage such a feat in so little time'

Harry and Hermione decided to enter the kitchen once Arthur had finished his response. As soon as the couple stood in the doorway, three things happened in quick succession. Molly Weasley screamed and fainted while Mr. Weasley lost his balance when trying to find a seat in shock and fell to the floor while Remus laughed so hard he too ended up on the floor. Harry gave a small chuckle and helped Remus up while Hermione helped Mr. Weasley who then helped up his wife after enervating her. Remus stood holding on to the table while wiping away the tears from his eyes, after the initial shock had died down and Remus had apologised for forgetting to mention the change in Harry's appearance, the kitchen was silent until Ginny was heard coming down the stairs addressing her mother.

'Mom, there's something in the attic and I'm not sure what to do with it, have you seen Remus anywhere...who the hell is that?' said Ginny as she entered the kitchen.

'Ginny, you've known me for 5 years and all of a sudden I'm a stranger' harry replied with a smirk.

'HARRY, bloody hell...' before she could continue to speak Ginny was interrupted by her mother.

'Ginerva Molly Weasley, don't you dare use that language in this or any house!' molly then got up and escorted her daughter back up the stairs to the attic to see what Ginny was talking about before.

Harry and Hermione both chuckled at the scene of Ginny being pushed up the stairs by her mother. Turning to face Remus and Mr. Weasley, harry asked what they had been discussing before he had entered.

'It's nothing to worry about harry' said Remus.

'Maybe it isn't something to worry about Remus, but if it is something to do with me, I should have a right to know.' Replied harry.

'It's something that we thought would help you harry. Voldemort knows that you have gone through your mature in magic and if your magic has increased, then he will do anything to make sure he is prepared. We were discussing the fact that you could learn how to mask your increase so that it appears nothing has changed. That's if you have changed.' Said still staring at harry as if he had grown a third arm.

Remus stood up and drew his wand. 'Harry' he said as he was walking to the other end of the kitchen, 'I want you to stun me. I will block it but I would like to see the power behind the spell and then I can run a diagnosis of sort on my shield to see the power you now hold.'

Harry reluctantly got up after a squeeze of reassurance on his thigh from Hermione. Standing at the other end of the kitchen harry raised his wand and with a flick of his wrist yelled _stupefy, _the red beam sailed towards the silver shield of Remus and with a sound that reminded harry of breaking a wooden board, Remus went flying towards the wall and crashed into the shelves, falling to the floor.

Hermione was first to reach Remus as harry stood wide eyed and unable to move. Mr Weasley joined Hermione and after three enervate spells, Remus regained consciousness.

'Remus, I...I...I'm so sorry, I had no idea it would be that powerful. If I had...if I had know what would have happened I...I never would have agreed to this.' Harry said, his body shaking.

'It's fine Harry. I was actually expecting something like that. Unfortunately, I cannot run the diagnostic on my shield as you managed to completely smash it. But from what I felt, I can definitely say you have had an increase in power.'

Remus was escorted to a chair by the kitchen table by Hermione while Mr. Weasley repaired the broken shelves and everything else that had been broken.

Harry looked worried, he was replaying the conversation they had just had through his mind, realising that he could have the advantage over Voldemort if he could train his magic to appear as before.

'Remus' said harry, 'how am I supposed to disguise my power when school starts so soon.'

At the end of the question, a smirk appeared on Remus' face, 'with this' he said, while pulling out a tiny chest from his inside pocket. Confusing everyone in the kitchen, Remus decided to elaborate on the object he held in his open palm.

'Harry, you mostly hear that you have your mothers eyes and maybe once or twice that she was too the brightest witch of her age like Hermione.' with a nod from harry Remus continued; 'being so clever, your mother began to find the teachings at Hogwarts easy. She took it into her own hands to invent and discover new possibilities with magic and in doing so created this little trunk in my hand. It's not an ordinary trunk though. If I take of the shrinking charm, you can see that to everyone it looks like a normal trunk but it holds something within it that when used properly can help a person achieve great things, yet when used wrongly, can change a person making them insane or either making them evil. You have to promise me harry that when I show you inside this trunk, you will use it responsibly and not for the wrong reasons.'

Harry and Hermione both had wide eyes as they stared at the trunk. Harry nodded his head and gave his promise to Remus that he would only use it for the right reasons and for when it was last option he had.

Remus opened the trunk and asked harry and Hermione to follow him inside.

A/N: I know it's a cliff hanger and most of you probably have your guesses as to what the trunk holds but I couldn't help myself. I do not know when my next chapter will be up but I ask that you be patient with me as I have not had as much time as before to write the chapters. Please review and leave your comments, I love to see what you have to say and in all honesty, they do give me a push to write faster so I can post faster.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: I know I left you with a bit of a cliff hanger in the last chapter but you will now find out what harry has been given to allow him to gain control and manage his magic. Enjoy and if I feel like being nice, then maybe I'll leave you with a clean cut chapter and no more suspense endings...maybe...

Chapter 10

Harry, Hermione and Remus made their way down a stairway that appeared once the trunk was opened. The stairs were made from stone and spiralled into blackness. Flame torches lit one by one as they made their way into the unknown. Reaching a doorway, Remus turned to face the two teens following him, placing his hand on the door knob and turning, he announced, 'harry, Hermione, welcome to the trunk of time.'

Harry was first to enter and he slowly made his way inside. When Remus took a step aside, harry was greeted by a massive room. The floors were made of a black and white marble. There were doors that lead to 5 other rooms at the opposite end of where they had entered. The walls were lined with thousands of torches similar to those in the stairwell. On one wall, to the left of harry, stood three 20 foot pillars with rotating sections that held numbers ranging from 0 to 9. On the right side of the room, the wall held multiple shelves, all filled with different books. Harry held the wide-eyed expression for another minute before the shriek from Hermione snapped him out of his trance. Looking behind him, harry saw Hermione with the world's biggest smile plastered on her face as her eyes were locked on the shelves and books. Harry gave a small chuckle to the fact that no matter how amazing and spectacular a place could be, Hermione could find joy in the information she could now find in a book she had never read.

Remus began walking towards the large pillars with harry and Hermione behind him. Harry took a while to get Hermione to follow them but she eventually snapped out of her book daze and came back to reality. When Remus stopped he looked up at the pillars.

'These are the most important to being in the trunk of time. While they are all on 0, time is the same here as it is on the outside, yet when changed, can bend time so that a year in here could be the same as a day outside. Your mother, harry, took 2 years to create this and was very clever to make sure that a person could only be in here a year each time. When the year is up, a person has to spend a month outside before using it again. Only she knows how to disable this spell, and it died with her.' Remus was now wiping tears from his eyes along with harry while he held Hermione. 'The first pillar indicates the number of months you wish to spend within the trunk. One month is equivalent to two hours outside as there are 12 months in a year and 24 hours in a day. The second pillar indicates the time inside the chamber, giving the time and date that you are in, allowing you to maintain a healthy day of meals and sleep without changing your pattern of the outside world. Your mother found that having a date allows the person to keep a sane mind while in the trunk so that they don't fall into a psyche of endless time. These dates have no correlation to the outside world yet after being inside the trunk a person sees the inside as the outside and this allows them to see it as real. The third pillar is a setting of which you can change the inside of the trunk into a different place. There are 157 different settings and areas that will help you with your training, there are places such as a track to run, a swimming pool setting and many others that you will soon discover, the book can be found under the title settings on the shelves down the right side of the hall, all you have to do is summon it and it shall appear before you, this only works for that particular book. When a setting is chosen, the pillars and shelves along with the doors shall disappear, another much smaller pillar will appear with the same structure yet it resembles the hours you wish to use the setting, after that time is up, the room will change back to the way it is now. One piece of advice that I shall leave you with before we continue is that make sure you are on ground level before the time runs out or you will either fall from mid air or get stuck in the ground.'

Harry and Hermione gave a small smile to Remus' comment and began making their way towards the 5 doors at the end of the room. Reaching the first door and opening it, Remus began his tour guide information speech again.

'The first door as you can see is a bedroom. This, for obvious reasons is for you to sleep in at 'night time'; there is one bed with bedside tables, a dresser for all your clothes, a desk for reading and chest of drawers.' Making their way out the room, they reached the second door. 'This is the bathroom, complete with bath tub, shower and a sink, nothing really special about it but necessary.' Leaving the bathroom they reached the third door which was another bedroom. 'This is the same as the last bedroom. Lilly put in two bedrooms in case a situation like yours was in need of it.' The fourth door was opened to reveille a kitchen. 'It has all the necessities for you to cook and prepare meals. The cupboards are charmed to replace whatever is used, so no matter how long you are in here, you will never run out of food.' Remus stopped before entering the final room. 'Harry, Hermione, you must swear to me that when I open the next door, you take most caution in walking around.' After a nod, Remus opened the door to reveille a room that had every weapon imaginable to man either in glass cases or hanging from the wall. 'These are for training purposes, you don't have to learn how to use every one of them, but since Lilly has put in books on how to use them, she decided that having the weapon could help as well.'

Remus was talking but harry wasn't paying any attention as his eyes focused on four glass encased weapons that were at the end of room dimly lit. Making his way towards them, not hearing the calling of his name from Hermione or Remus, harry slowly took step after step before stopping an inch from the first case. Upon closer inspection of the sword, harry could see the name Godric Gryffindor running down the blade. The blade was different to that of the one in the office that he had seen and held before. This blade was white with a ruby handle and golden trim. Confused, harry looked to his right at the next case. This case held two axes that were smaller in size than the sword yet still looked heavy. The blades at the end of the axes where also white, the handles looked like they were made of platinum and held a green trim to their ends. Looking closely to the axe blades, harry could make out Salazar on the first blade and Slytherin on the second. With a mixture of confusion and curiosity, harry moved to the third case. This case held a bow with arrows that were much longer than that of the sword. The bow was simple and looked very delicate, the back of the bow was black and looked like scales, the string was also black and thin, giving harry the idea that it would break easily. Looking closely down the back of the bow, harry could see the name Helga Huffelpuff in yellow letters. The arrows were in a circular bag. The bag was black with yellow trimmings while the arrows looked sort of like a stretched out bumble bee. The arrow heads where white like the blades on the previous two weapons and even from the distance that harry was at looked very sharp. Reaching the fourth and final glass case, harry gave a small chuckle to the small dagger that lay inside, 'Well that's a bit anticlimactic.' He whispered to himself. The dagger was a quarter the size of the blade he saw first, it too had a white blade and a black handle with a spiral of blue making its way from the hilt of the blade to the end of the handle. On the blade, harry saw the initials R.R. and knew it belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw. Standing back and looking to the left harry found himself staring at the weapons of the founders.

Hermione walked to harry followed his gaze. 'Harry, what are you staring at' harry looked at her with shock on his face. 'You mean to tell me that you can't see anything here' he said while waving his hands around in a circular motion in the area of where the cases were. 'Yes I can, I'm sorry harry, I couldn't resist' said Hermione with a small chuckle at the end. Harry let out a breath and faced Hermione, 'god Hermione, never do that again, I thought I'd gone mental.' Harry placed his hand over his heart and let out a small chuckle, 'that was pretty good though, you do know that I have to get you back for that now', ermione nodded but continued to laugh at her little practical joke.

Remus held back a smile as he made his way to the two. 'So I see you have discovered the founder's arsenal. I can tell by your expression that you are confused as to why they are here.'

'I don't understand Remus; I thought that the Gryffindor sword was in Dumbledore's office, sorry, headmistress McGonagall's office.' Said harry.

'That is true Harry, the sword in the headmistress' office does belong to Godric yet it was not his personal weapon. Godric asked the goblins to create that weapon for him for the use of others in his house in their time of need, such as your position in second year. This sword however was only for use by a true Gryffindor, and by true, I mean blood relation. The same goes for the other weapons, yet the three other founders did not create a second weapon like Godric' explained Remus.

Harry still held a confused look on his face and Remus took a stab about what it may be. 'You are wondering why the founders arsenal is inside your mothers trunk of time aren't you harry?' Harry looked at Remus, 'if the founder's arsenal could only be used by those of blood relation, how would my mum have them when she was muggleborn. '

Remus looked at harry as if he had just been slapped. 'Harry, when you went for Sirius' will reading, and you became emancipated, did the goblins take you through your history and assets?' harry gave a shake of his head indicating a no.

'Well then, when we are through in here, you will still have a few days before school. So we can make the trip to Gringott's then. But for now, we will leave the trunk; no time has been altered so the amount of time you have been in here is the same as the outside. You and Hermione will go and get all of your belongings and we will meet back at the trunk at 11:45 pm tonight.'

With that said, harry Hermione and Remus left the weapons room and made their way back up the stairs to exit the trunk. Both teens went to their rooms and began collecting everything they would need and use while in the trunk, including all their school books, notes, quills and ink and harry even packed his broom in case the trunk had a quidditch pitch setting.

After harry was packed, he walked to Hermione's room, with a nock and 'come in' from Hermione. Harry joined Hermione with packing all of her books. When they were done, they both lay awake on the bed waiting for 11:45pm. Harry edged his hand closer and closer to Hermione's until he held it in his, their fingers a perfect fit in each other's hand.

A/N: the next few chapters will involve harry and Hermione's adventure in the trunk, along with the strengthening of their relationship. If you have any ideas, don't be afraid, I promise I won't bite...let me know what you think...thanks for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: I have decided that I will only post new chapters when I get more than 7 reviews on the previous ones. I'm not trying to be mean, but the reviews make me want to write, even if I am in a mood where I don't want to do anything. This will be a long story and I'm thinking that it's going to take over a year before it's finished. So please review, it's a win/win situation if you do.

Chapter 11

It was 11: 40 and Hermione and harry decided to start moving their belongings down to the lounge where the trunk was currently situated. It would be moved after harry and Hermione where sealed in to a spare bedroom so nobody could get to it.

Harry came down first with both trunks and other bags floating behind him. Stopping before Remus, he lowered the items to the ground. Turning his attention to the stairs, harry laughed at Hermione who came running down with a pile of books behind her.

'Hermione, did you not see the gigantic wall of shelves filled to the max with books. Why are you brining those?' Said harry.

'Well, if you must know' replied Hermione, 'I honestly think that these will not be in there. I know that your mum was muggleborn, yet the trunk is for magical use and I think that these novels, written by muggles, would not be found in there.'

With that said, and harry admitting defeat by keeping quiet, Hermione placed the books on top of her trunk and went to stand next to harry. Remus looked at his watch and found it was 11:55.

'Harry, when you go down, I want you to wait until there is only one minute left until midnight. When the time comes, you must change the first pillar so that it reads 12, indicating 12 months. The second pillar must be set to today's date, when you change it from 11:59 to 12:00, the chamber will go into a different time to the outside world, and you will not feel any difference when this happens. I must advise that you only change the third pillar when you have familiarized yourself with the settings.'

Remus opened the trunk and the two teens made their way into the trunk. Reaching the hall, harry decided that he would take their belongings into their rooms while Hermione changed the pillars. Harry thought it would be best if he didn't touch anything as he would most likely mess it up.

Hermione stood before the first pillar and rotated the top numbers to 1; she then rotated the second lot of numbers to 2. She moved over and set the date and time on the second pillar while making sure she checked her watch. Leaving it at 11:59, Hermione counted down the seconds before rotating the bottom ring to shift all the others so that it now read 00:00, midnight.

'Well, that's that. I guess we should go to bed then, we have a long year ahead of us. Which room did you place my stuff in harry.' asked Hermione.

'The first one, I put them next to your bed. Goodnight Hermione.' As harry said goodnight, he leaned in and gave her a small kiss on the lips. Keeping his forehead attached to hers and his eyes locked on her brown orbs. Hermione grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him into another kiss. This one filled with passion and lust. Harry grabbed her waist and pulled her body into his. Before he could do anything else, Hermione stopped the kiss, said goodnight and walked towards her bedroom, leaving harry standing there like a lost child.

Making his way towards his room after snapping out of his state of amazement, harry changed and made his way to bed, going to sleep with a smile on his face.

While harry was sleeping, he had the same dream that he had had a few weeks before. He was flying his broom towards a women and a baby, flying faster and faster yet the women still seemed to be the same distance away from where he started.

The next day, harry woke up tangled in his sheets with sweat dripping from his body. 'I guess no matter what I dream, even if it's good, I still wake up like this.' He said to himself.

Untangling himself and grabbing his towel, the half asleep harry made his way to the bathroom. Opening the door, he made his way to the shower and climbed in stood under the hot jets of water hitting his body. After standing under the water harry grabbed his soap and began washing himself. A few seconds later harry heard a scream, turning around he saw Hermione standing with her hand over her mouth, eyes fixed on Harry's naked body. Realising what was happening, harry placed his hands in front of himself, covering up his body. Hermione turned and left the bathroom with a bright red face that could be seen a mile away. Harry took a few seconds to recover from what had happened. Rinsing himself off and getting out the shower, harry changed and made his way to Hermione's room, knocking on the door and not receiving an answer, harry knocked again.

'Hermione, please let me in. Don't be embarrassed, it wasn't your fault.' Said harry. Hearing the door unlock, harry slowly made his way into the room. Hermione was sitting on her bed with her pillow covering her face, lowering it so her eyes were visible, harry made his way towards her.

'Hermione, I'm sorry, I should have locked the door, and it's not your fault.' Harry was stuttering with his words as he kept looking around the words as if searching for the right thing to say. Hermione lowered the pillow to show her face, the red starting to evaporate from it.

'Harry, it is partially my fault, I heard the water but paid no attention to it. If it makes you feel better, I didn't see much'

'Well thanks'

Hermione's face reddened at Harry's comment, 'oh, no harry, I didn't mean it like that at all. The glass was fogged up due to the heat of the water, it has nothing to do with your...you know...size', the more Hermione spoke the redder her face got, placing the pillow over her face she lay her head back in utter embarrassment.

Harry gave a chuckle and sat next to Hermione on the bed, lifting her up and wrapping an arm around her, he pulled her towards him and rested his head on top of hers. Hermione took the pillow off her face and looked at harry. When their eyes met they stared at one another for a while before breaking out in laughter, falling back on the bed. After a good laugh, the couple lay wrapped in each other's arms for a few more minutes. Finally getting up, harry made his way back to his room to collect his wand while Hermione went to the shower, locking the door just in case.

Meeting up in the main room, Hermione made her way to the shelf looking for the book that explained the settings.

'Hermione, what are you looking for?' asked harry

'I want to find the book that shows us the different settings so we can familiarise ourselves for when we train.' Replied Hermione

'But Remus said the book can be summoned'

'I know that harry, yet Remus forgot to mention the name of the book, so now I'm looking for it' stated Hermione

While Hermione continued her search, harry took out his wand and in a trying effort announced, 'accio book of settings'. Hearing harry, Hermione turned around with a look on her face that read 'do you really think that will work', but a few seconds later, a book about a foot wide and 6 inches thick appeared in front of him.

Harry gave a cheeky smile that did not fit with Hermione as she turned around and continued looking at the many different books in the shelf.

Harry gave a small smile to Hermione's actions and opened the book to the first page, it read,

_Instructions for use of the settings book_

_On the next page you will find a contents page, this page enables the user to either find a different training room by filtering, using themes such as cardio, water, high altitude, weapons or so forth. Using your wand, place the tip to the selected word and continue doing so until you have found your setting. Once the desired room is chosen, the book shall transform it pages from blank to information on how to use the room. _

_When the room changes back to its original form after the time period chosen, the book shall return to its original form. To change the room, repeat the previous steps. The room is only able to change once a day, therefore use of the room should be at your fullest of capability._

After harry read the page a few times so that he understood it word for word, he turned the page to reveal the contents. It read,

_Contents…_

_Water training_

_Cardio training_

_Altitude training_

_Strength training_

_Emotional training_

_Mental training_

_Specialized training_

_Custom training_

….

A/N: I know I know, it's been a long time but here's a new chapter and remember, the more reviews, the faster I post a new chapter!


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: I know I know, I'm sooooooo sorry it's been ages since my last update but Uni is kicking my ass, if I can give a bit of advice, do not study architecture!. not to mention my nephew was born a few weeks ago, so I was busy with that and just life in general has been chaotic. Hopefully the chapters will start coming regularly, but if not, I apologize now. I love harry potter and the universe JKR created, but reality right now is more important so my story here and my story on harrypotterfanfiction are going to be going slowly as my time will mostly be spent on school. I'm sorry again guys, but I do hope you all understand.

'Hey Hermione, come and read this. I think we should start on cardio first, that way we can use the rest of the training to its full benefit because we won't get tired quickly' said Harry. Hermione made her way over to the book and read the book before agreeing with harry and motioning for him to place the tip of his wand on their choice.

Once Harry had chosen the option, the words of the book became clear and re-appeared as new instructions.

_Cardio training._

_Welcome to cardio, the following instructions must be followed to ensure full assistance in your training._

_Before altering the room, make sure that you are stretched, if you do this after you have changed the room, your time will be lost and you will not achieve maximum use of the room._

_Alter the numbers on the pillar to 2-0-1, this will change the room into the beginners cardio training room. Use 2-0-2 for intermediate and 2-0-3 for a more challenging cardio work-out._

_Once the room has changed, use the book for different work-outs to increase your cardio and fitness._

Harry and Hermione stretched their bodies, ensuring their muscles were loose. Changing the pillar to match 2-0-1, they watched as the room transferred into a basic 400m track. Turning the page, Harry read the instructions for their work-out.

_This work-out program will last an hour and should be done every day for 10 days before moving onto the next levels._

_Start with 2 laps around the track, stretching again when finished._

_The 12 minute run is exactly what it says. Run around the track for 12 minutes. It does not matter if you have to stop, but keep walking, push yourselves for twelve minutes._

_Once completed, use the 100 m markings for quick sprints. Do 10 of these, walking back to the starting line after every sprint._

_Run another 2 laps around the track, taking a 5 minute break after to control breathing._

_Stretch again, making sure to pay focus to leg muscles._

_For the last exercise, run as long as you can, walking does not count in this, if you have to stop then stop, but push yourself._

_You should see a clock at the starting line, this clock will keep time and distance for you, keeping records for you in this book so you are able to see your progress._

_Make sure to stretch after you have finished._

_Begin _

Harry and Hermione began the work-out, making sure they pushed themselves and followed the instructions. At the end of the work-out, both teens were completely out of breath and managed to get their breathing under control while stretching.

A few minutes after they had finished their stretches, the room changed back into its original form and the pillar went back to show 0-0-0.

On the sixth day of training, harry and Hermione had just finished their workout when the room changed back to its original form. Both teens were able to feel their stamina and fitness improving, checking their stats to see that they had both become faster in their running and were able to run for longer at a time.

On the tenth day, Harry and Hermione were finishing their last day of beginner's cardio, changing to the intermediate level the next day.

After the room had changed back to normal, harry quickly ran to the shower. After getting out and putting on a new change of clothes, he made his way to the kitchen whilst Hermione was showering. Over the past couple of days, harry had come to the conclusion that Hermione took about 20 minutes to shower. In the kitchen harry decided to try something and called out for dobby, a few seconds later, dobby the house elf appeared, not knowing that it was harry who had called due to his change in appearance, dobby snapped his fingers and harry was against the wall a few feet off the ground.

'Who is you and how do you know dobby's name' said the house elf while staring down the stranger.

'Dobby, it's me harry, I freed you from the Malfoy's in my first year with a sock hidden in an old diary' said harry as he tried to move his limbs.

With eyes wider than tennis balls, dobby released harry and quickly ran towards him, hugging harry around his legs.

'Dobby is sorry Harry Potter sir, Dobby does not be knowing who is calling him when he comes' said the house elf.

'It's alright Dobby, I'm proud of you. It's good that you are aware and prepared' said Harry while looking down at his little friend.

'Yes harry potter sir, thank you. What can dobby be doing for you harry potter sir' said dobby with a wide smile upon his face.

'First, you can just call me harry. Secondly, I really didn't think that you would have been able to get in here. And lastly I need your help. Hermione's in the shower at the moment and I want to prepare a late lunch as a surprise for her. I will do the cooking, but she's going to be coming out soon and I would really appreciate if you could set up a nice table that we can eat at.' Explained harry.

Dobby did not answer but instead, quickly ran out the kitchen excited to be doing something for harry. Giving out a chuckle, harry took out his wand and summoned a 3 course meal that would keep them full until morning as it was only 4:30 in the afternoon inside the trunk. Making sure that all was good, harry quickly changed his outfit into a tuxedo and walked out to see how dobby was doing.

Leaving the kitchen, harry walked into the most amazing room he had ever seen. Dobby had changed the giant space into a small and cozy room, resembling that of a private booth in a restaurant.

'Wow dobby, this is amazing. I don't know what else to say, you did a great job. Could you do me another favor and wait in the kitchen, I think you can be a second surprise for Hermione' said harry while still admiring the room. Dobby gave a quick nod and made his way into the kitchen waiting for further instructions.

Harry stood outside the door to Hermione's room, waiting for her to exit. Quickly taking out his wand, harry transfigured his bow tie into a rose and decided to just loosen his top button.

Hermione opened the door and before she could tie her hair up, was frozen in shock as she saw harry and the room. After a few seconds, Hermione placed her hands in front of her mouth as she had no words. Harry handed Hermione the rose and guided her towards the table where they would be eating. Hermione was still in shock as she sat down and watched harry walk towards the kitchen, open the door and waited as if someone would walk out. To Hermione's surprise, again, she saw as dobby the house elf slowly made himself visible and as he saw the smile on Hermione's face, ran towards her, hugging her seated form placing his head on her lap.

'Miss Hermione, dobby has missed you' said dobby, Hermione hugged him back and smiled up at harry who now had the world's biggest grin spreading across his face.

Hermione looked down at dobby and replied, 'I missed you to dobby, and it's so nice to see you. How did you get here'?

Dobby took a step back from Hermione and answered with a confused look, 'dobby popped Miss Hermione granger ma'am, how else is us house elves supposed to comes and goes'.

Harry gave a small chuckle and placed a hand on the confused house elf's shoulder, 'I think what Hermione meant was how you were able to get into the time trunk when we are going at a faster time than the outside world'.

Dobby's ears dropped, 'I is so sorry miss Hermione, I was not understanding the question. House elves is able to pop anywhere, it does not affect house elves when time is being changed and wards and other protections does not stop us. If a house elf is being summoned he or she must go. If that is being all, dobby is getting your starters so Harry Potter sir, and Miss Hermione Granger is able to eat togethers' and with that, dobby left the two teens to sit down and relax.

Hermione took hold of Harry's hand before he went to sit down. 'Harry, what is this. How were you able to pull this off?'. Smiling, harry squeezed her hand and went to his seat, 'while you were showering, I called for dobby but didn't know if it would work and all of a sudden he showed up. He didn't recognize me so he subdued me before I told him it was me. I asked him to do the table while I did the food and to tell you the truth, I was as surprised as you were when I saw this place.'

Hermione smiled and took her wand out, changing her jeans and t-shirt into a little black dress, taking her hair down, she let it fall down her back.

'There, at least we are dressed appropriately now. I heard what you said, yet it doesn't explain why.'

Harry took both her hands in his, 'I know that we have kissed a few times and you couldn't help yourself so you had to check me out in the shower the other day, but I wanted to do this right, so Hermione granger, welcome to our first date.'

Hermione smiled and chuckled at Harry's mention of the shower incident, yet at the mention of the first date, she truly smiled.

Dobby walked out with the first course of starters, and cleared the table when the dish was finished. This continued through the meal as course after course was brought out. Harry and Hermione talked about the training and the time they had left to which Hermione noted that she would have to plan wisely so that harry could control his powers before the year was up and they had to leave. The night was enjoyed by both teens and at the end of their date, after thanking dobby and promising him that they would make sure to summon him again, harry stood up and walked towards Hermione, extending his hand to her harry helped her out her chair. 'Thank-you for a wonderful evening, may I walk you to your house, or room in this case', Hermione couldn't help but laugh at harry and his chivalry combined with a bit of a performance. Joining in, Hermione stated 'why thank-you kind sir, that would be most appreciated'.

When they reached the door, harry took Hermione's hands into his and brought them up to his chest, pulling her closer to him. I don't want to ruin this night, but I've wanted to ask you this for a while. ' are we going out, as in boyfriend and girlfriend, because we kissed and I always assumed that after the third kiss or so it was automatically established, but I'm not sure and I don't want to…' before harry could continue his very long question, Hermione stood on her toes and pulled harry down for a kiss.

'You talk too much, and yes harry, I would safely assume that we are going out. Goodnight.' And with a final kiss, Hermione slipped into her room leaving harry whistling a happy tune to his room. Both harry and Hermione went to bed that night with huge grins permanently etched on their faces.

A/N: I will try get another chapter up soon, but I can't promise anything, maybe all the reviews I get will help push me to finishing it soon. So review everyone, even if you just say hi…


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hi everyone! I know it's been forever since my last update and I'm so sorry but hopefully I'll be able to get a couple of new chapters up in the upcoming weeks, so please don't hate me, and I hope you will still be following the story after all this time!**

**Chapter 13**

After 45 days of continuous cardio workouts, Harry and Hermione had finally finished all three difficulty levels and were ready to advance. That morning both teens were sitting in the kitchen after eating breakfast, discussing how they should begin their training regime and what course would be best to take.

'I think we should start with the basics and work our way up Harry, with this increase in power of yours I believe that starting simple is the best way to go, therefore you can develop your skills after you've learned control'. Harry seemed disappointed, he wouldn't say it in front of Hermione, but he really just wanted to get to the weapons training. After a conversation with himself in his head though, he decided that she was right, what was the point in having this new found power if he wasn't able to handle it properly, so like a smart man, he just agreed with her. 'Excellent, I'll get the book and we can go from there'

Harry followed Hermione out the kitchen and into the main room, where the book was placed upon its stand. Opening the book to the contents page, Hermione, realizing that there was no selection for what her and harry had prepared to do; she placed her wand on the custom training option. Turning the page she found the following instructions.

_For the custom training option, the pillars should be turned to read the option 8-0-0. Please be reminded that this should only be done once the instructions of the room are fully read and understood. Once the pillars are changed, the room will appear to have not changed except for the disappearance of the book shelves and doors to the other begin your custom training, one is needed to concentrate on the room or objects for which they desire, this should cause the room to change to the required form. There is no specific time limit placed on this room, yet the users should beware that an extended period within this room can cause magical exhaustion which will take away from the overall time spent inside the trunk for said person to recover._

After they both read the instruction, Hermione turned the pillars to the required numbers. 'harry, I think we should go for an hour just to see how magically draining the room is, after which we can either increase or maybe even decrease depending on how demanding the room is', harry simply nodded in agreement as Hermione activated the room. As expected, nothing happened. Harry concentrated on three floating targets at the end on the room and the objects soon appeared, all within different height ranges. He stared at Hermione, 'do you think my mum knew about the room of requirement and based this of that idea', 'maybe, or was just a brilliant witch like everyone says'. Harry smiled at Hermione and positioned himself and drew his wand '_STUPEFY'_, a bright red beam shot from his wand towards the first target. As it hit, the target exploded into small wooden chips and other materials as Harry and Hermione stood in shock at what had just happened.

Hermione was the first to speak, 'okay, so now we know the result of your full power, how about you try pushing a small amount of magic through your wand and see what happens', harry repeated his actions yet this time, although the target was definitely out of use, only a portion of it had fallen off. 'that's a lot better harry, I suppose it's safe to assume that all you need to do is focus on only using small portions of you magic, let's see how you do in a different situation.

Hermione concentrated and the room began to change into what harry remembered as the actual room of requirement when the DA would train. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione stun a practice dummy, yet these dummies did not just move, they shot spells back. Harry focused and began to look around, seeing two approaching from his left and concentrating on a small usage of power, he shot two stunners and took them down. Moving to a new position, three more attacked from different angles, as harry blocked oncoming spells and dodged others, he ran to get a better position to attack back.

Hermione was taking on two dummies of her own and when harry ran and his dummies began to chase, they changed course and went towards Hermione instead. Only one thought went through Harry's mind at that moment, _help her!_

Feeling a surge of power take over, harry hot five stunners in succession of one another. Once they hit their targets the dummies exploded, much the same as the first target did. Hermione faced harry who was now breathing deeply and sweating, and thought 'this can't be good'. 'harry, what just happened?', 'I don't know Hermione, the dummies changed course and went after you and I lost control, sort of, but the next thing I knew, I'd taken them out'

'you shouldn't be breathing so hard harry, or sweating, after our cardio training we both know that you can go longer than a half an hour before looking like this.' Harry was still trying to catch his breath as he lay on his back. 'I think we need to work on one thing before we get started on your power control', 'what's that Hermione', 'emotional training'.

Once the room had changed back and both teens had showered they sat in the kitchen with dinner. 'harry, one thing that I've noticed throughout the years we've spent together is that when your emotions get the better of you it either causes you to act drastically without thought of any consequences or causes you to almost get yourself killed. I mean you basically managed to magically exhaust yourself because you thought I was in danger, you didn't think that I could've taken on a few while you could have easily taken out the others without using your full power'.

Harry knew she was right, it's Hermione, she's always right. 'I'm not saying that you should lose all emotion but that you just need to learn how to use them for your advantage and to control your emotions, not let them control you'

Harry went to bed that night knowing that he would not be able to do anything the next day but after that he would need to learn how to control his emotions so that he could not be manipulated by Voldemort anymore, this brought up the memory of falling for Voldemort's plot to get the prophecy by using Sirius. Harry did not sleep well that night as nightmares of his godfather falling through the veil played over in his mind.

A/N: Please don't kill me, I know it's been forever…I had an idea to bring in a magical creature to be a mentor of the emotional training, let me know what creature you would like to see, I'll use the one that has the most votes. There will be a new chapter up tomorrow, can anyone guess what harry and Hermione will do with this unexpected day off?


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